The invention is based on a bearing part for the articulation of a wiper blade.
Known windshield wipers have a wiper arm which is constructed from a fastening part and, articulated thereon, a joint part with a wiper rod. Further, they have a wiper blade formed of a carrying clip system with a primary center clip and secondary intermediate clips connected with the latter in an articulated manner, as well as claw clips and a wiper strip. The wiper blade is articulated at the wiper arm in that a hook-shaped end of the wiper rod holds a bearing part which is arranged between two side cheeks of the center clip and engages an articulated pin of the center clip by a hub which is open along a circumferential area. The joint formed in this way guides the wiper blade during the swinging motion over the windshield, wherein the joint and the carrying clip system make it possible for the wiper strip to be adapted to a curvature of the windshield.
While the wiper arm is generally constructed in a vehicle-specific manner and, in practice, does not wear out over service life, the wiper blade wears especially at the joints and at the wiper strip, so that it must be changed more frequently during the life of the vehicle. In this connection, as a rule, not only the wiper strip, but the entire wiper blade which is commercially available is changed.
In order to reduce the quantity of wiper blade types, there are included in the packaged wiper blades bearing parts made of plastic which have different receiving devices for the wiper rod and which therefore make it possible to use the same wiper blade with wiper rods having different material thicknesses and widths as well as different bending radii and catch elements. The user chooses from the available bearing parts the appropriate bearing part for his vehicle and throws away the rest. The excess bearing parts increase the size of the wiper blade packaging and lead to increased waste. Further, the transport and storage volume is increased.
EP 0 234 525 B1 discloses a bearing part of the above-mentioned type which has a crosspiece which is offset in the longitudinal direction relative to the open hub and serves as means for fixing in the longitudinal direction when the bearing part is mounted at the hook-shaped end of the wiper rod. For this purpose, the crosspiece is at a distance from the axis of rotation of the hub, which distance corresponds to the outer bending radius of the hook-shaped end of the wiper rod. Therefore, the wiper rod does not need a catch hole for securing the bearing part longitudinally. The bearing part is accordingly suited for wiper rods with or without catch holes.
Further, a similar bearing part is known from EP 0 655 373 A1. This bearing part has two crosspieces arranged at an offset in the longitudinal direction relative to the hub and serve as means for longitudinally securing a hook-shaped end of a wiper rod; specifically, the crosspiece lying closest to the axis of rotation serves for a hook-shaped end with a smaller bending radius and the other crosspiece serves for a hook-shaped end with a greater bending radius. The hook-shaped end with a greater bending radius contacts, by its bent inner surface, a correspondingly shaped contact face of the first crosspiece. This bearing part is accordingly suitable for wiper rods whose hook-shaped ends have two different bending radii. In order to prevent rotation of the bearing part relative to the wiper rod, it has an additional crosspiece and a catch projection arranged at an offset relative to the hub. The wiper rod snaps in between the crosspiece and catch projection when assembled.